This application claims benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 to Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-112463, filed on Apr. 11, 2001, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit in which an internal power supply voltage different from an external power supply voltage is used, and more particularly to a semiconductor integrated circuit within which a voltage lower than that of an external power supply is used.
2. Description of the Related Art
As for a related semiconductor integrated circuit, a technique of stepping down a voltage supplied from the outside to generate an internal voltage and using the internal voltage as an operating voltage of a MOS transistor is used for a semiconductor integrated circuit having a microstructural MOS transistor. FIG. 5 shows the configuration of the periphery of a power supply voltage step down circuit of the related semiconductor integrated circuit.
An operating power supply voltage step down circuit 50, a standby power supply voltage step down circuit 51, a MOS circuit group 52, a VREF generating circuit 53, and a buffer 54 are provided here.
The power supply voltage step down circuits each receive an external power supply voltage VDDext supplied to a chip, generates an internal power supply voltage VDDint lower than the external power supply voltage VDDext, and supplies it to the MOS circuit group 52 via an internal power supply line IPL in the chip. The MOS circuit group 52 includes one or more MOS transistors, and, for example, it corresponds to a common CMOS circuit such as an inverter circuit or a NAND circuit, a memory cell, and the like.
The external power supply voltage VDDext differs depending on tip specifications of a semiconductor integrated circuit. For example, approximately 2.5 V or 1.8 V is used. In addition, the internal power sully voltage VDDint differs depending on the design rule or the like of a semiconductor integrated circuit. For example, approximately 1.2 V is used in a semiconductor integrated circuit having a 0.1 xcexcm rule.
An operating state or a standby state of the chip is selected by a standby control signal STBY which is supplied from the outside of the chip to indicate the standby state. Namely, when the standby control signal STBY is at a low level, the operating state is selected, and when the standby control signal STBY is at a high level, the standby state is selected.
The operating/standby power supply voltage step down circuits 50 and 51 respectively have output P-type MOS transistors 55 and 56, resistance elements 57 and 58, and 59 and 60 for resistively dividing the internal power supply voltage VDDint, and the first operational amplifier 61 and the second operational amplifier 62.
The first operational amplifier 61 and the second operational amplifier 62 respectively perform feedback control for the output P-type MOS transistors 55 and 56 in such a manner that the potentials of nodes FA and FB obtained by resistively dividing the internal power supply voltage VDDint are equalized to VREF, and hence the fixed internal power supply voltage VDDint is outputted irrespective of the level of the external power supply voltage VDDext.
In the operating/standby power supply voltage step down circuits 50 and 51, the internal power supply voltage VDDint which is outputted to the internal power supply line IPL is set by using resistance division and the operational amplifiers 61 and 62. In other words, in the operating/standby power supply voltage step down circuits 50 and 51, the potential that the internal power supply voltage VDDint is resistively divided is applied to plus input terminals of the operational amplifiers 61 and 62, and an output of the VREF generating circuit 53 is applied to minus input terminals of the operational amplifiers 61 and 62.
The operating power supply voltage step down circuit 50 has large current driving force for the internal power supply voltage VDDint, but on the other hand, the current consumption of the voltage step down circuit itself is large. Since it is required to hold down the current consumption of the entire chip in the standby state, the operating power supply voltage step down circuit 50 is stopped by the standby control signal STBY, and only the standby power supply voltage step down circuit 51 is operated. In the standby voltage step down circuit 51, the MOS circuit group 52 to which the internal power supply voltage VDDint is supplied is stopped in the standby state, whereby only small current driving force is required, resulting in a small current consumption of the voltage step down circuit itself. The operating/standby power supply voltage step down circuits 50 and 51 generate the internal power supply voltage VDDint having the same potential based on the reference voltage VREF. Namely, the internal power supply voltage VDDint outputted from the operating power supply voltage step down circuit 50 to the internal power supply voltage line IPL is the same as the internal power supply voltage VDDint outputted from the standby power supply voltage step down circuit 51 to the internal power supply voltage line IPL. It should be mentioned that both the operating power supply voltage step down circuit 50 and the standby power supply step down circuit 51 are operating in the operating state.
In the related semiconductor integrated circuit described above, there arises the following problem.
As the scale-down of a transistor used in a semiconductor integrated circuit advances and a gate insulating film of the MOS transistor becomes thinner, recently a gate leakage current of the MOS transistor has been given a great deal of attention as an obstacle to a reduction in the standby current of a chip.
For example, in a design rule of 0.15 xcexcm, the thickness of the gate insulating film is approximately 3.5 xcexcm. In a design rule of 0.1 xcexcm, the thickness of the gate insulating film is approximately 2 xcexcm. In the design rule of 0.15 xcexcm, the gate leakage current does not matter, but in the design rule of 0.1 xcexcm, a reduction in gate leakage current is needed.
Now, a voltage-current characteristic of the gate leakage current of the MOS transistor in the generation of the design rule of 0.1 xcexcm is shown in FIG. 6. As shown in FIG. 7A, a semiconductor substrate 65, a source 66, a drain 67 and a gate electrode 69 of a MOS transistor are connected in order to constitute a MOS capacitor, and then as shown in FIG. 6, a gate leakage current (a current flowing from the gate electrode 69 to the substrate 65 through a gate insulating film 68) Ig per unit gate area is graphed by varying the gate voltage of the MOS capacitor. In FIG. 7, the same ground potential is applied to the semiconductor substrate 65, the source 66, and the drain 67.
The gate electrode 69 is formed on the semiconductor substrate 65 with a gate insulating film 68 therebetween, and a gate voltage Vg is applied to the gate electrode 69. The result of the measurements of the gate leakage current Ig flowing from the gate electrode 69 to the semiconductor substrate 65 in such a state is shown in FIG. 6.
Since the MOS transistor in the generation of the design rule of 0.1 xcexcm operates at a power supply voltage of 1.2 V, as can be seen from FIG. 6, the gate leakage current in this case is 1 nA per 1 xcexcm2 gate oxide film.
For example, the total gate area of a 36 Mbit low power consumption SRAM chip in this generation is 100 Kxcexcm2 order, and hence the gate leakage current of the entire chip reaches 100 xcexcA. Since the standby current specification of the low power consumption SRAM chip is usually not more than 100 xcexcA, it becomes difficult to satisfy the standby current specification by only the gate leakage current in this generation. Moreover, due to ununiformity of processes or the like, gate insulating films formed in respective chips are different in thickness, and the magnitude of their gate leakage currents are different in some cases, whereby some chips which satisfy the standby current specification and other chips which does not satisfy the same are manufactured mixedly.
Incidentally, although it is possible to satisfy the standby current specification by preparing a lower external voltage, in this case, a potential different from that of an ordinary power supply needs to be provided outside the semiconductor chip, resulting in the complication of a system configuration into which the semiconductor integrated circuit is incorporated.
As stated above, in the related example in which the internal power supply voltage VDDint is supplied into the chip in the standby state at the same level as in the operating state, there is a problem that with the advance of the scale-down of the MOS transistor, it becomes difficult to suppress the standby current due to the gate leakage current.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a semiconductor integrated circuit comprising:
a power supply voltage step down circuit which is supplied with a power supply voltage and controlled by a standby control signal indicating an operating state or a standby state, wherein the power supply voltage step down circuit outputs a first internal power supply voltage lower than the power supply voltage to an internal power supply line when the standby control signal indicates the operating state, and the power supply voltage step down circuit outputs a second internal power supply voltage lower than the first internal power supply voltage to the internal power supply line when the standby control signal indicates the standby state; and
a MOS circuit group including one or more MOS transistors which are supplied with the first internal power supply voltage or the second internal power supply voltage from the internal power supply line to operate.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a semiconductor integrated circuit comprising:
a power supply voltage step down circuit which is supplied with a power supply voltage and which outputs an internal power supply voltage lower than the power supply voltage to an internal power supply line; and
a MOS circuit group including one or more MOS transistors which are supplied with the internal power supply voltage from the internal power supply line to operate,
wherein the power supply voltage step down circuit estimates an amount of gate leakage currents flowing in the MOS circuit group and lowers the internal power supply voltage as the estimated amount of the gate leakage currents becomes large.